H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** Sep. 06, 1996: Vol. 5, No. 37 Circulation: 16,729 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 163 Pages of Text ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Article retrieval instructions at end of this file more@hpcwire.tgc.com For subscription information, email sub@hpcwire.tgc.com For a free 4-week trial subscription, e-mail trial@hpcwire.tgc.com -------------------- * -------------------- 7171 ) HIGH-SPEED SWITCHING WHITE PAPER offered by Ancor Communications ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 10121 ) FEATURES: DEVELOPMENTS ON THE HORIZON IN PARALLEL PROCESSING | | 10126 ) SCIENCE NEWS: LARGEST PRIME SO FAR REVEALED BY CRAY MACHINE | | 10127 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: NIST WILL SOON STOP WRITING SQL TESTS | | 10135 ) NEWS BRIEFS: NEW 64-BIT ALPHA SERVERS AND BENCHMARKS FROM DEC | |____________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ===================================================================== 10121 ) PARALLEL PROCESSING IN 1998.......................................7.1K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large New processors and ambitious projects should bring big changes in high- end parallel processing by 1998. These developments will also impact upon RPP: the Real Parallel Processing of small configurations but lots of power. 10122 ) PAPERS DEVELOPS NOVEL SUPERCOMPUTING CAPABILITY FOR NOWS..........8.7K by Alan Beck, editor in chief PAPERS (Purdue's Adapter for Parallel Execution and Rapid Synchronization) is custom hardware that allows a cluster of unmodified PCs and/or workstations to function as a fine-grain parallel computer capable of MIMD, SIMD, and VLIW execution. HPCwire interviews a principal developer. 10123 ) CISCO BUYS GRANITE FOR FATA: GIGABIT ETHERNET.....................5.1K News Analysis by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Network users with big bandwidth appetites want FATA --Fast Alternatives to ATM. Cisco is buying Granite to get in on Gigabit Ethernet technology. By 1998, super-HIPPI may bring Gigabyte connections. 10124 ) WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL COMPUTING SITES LIST AUTHOR SHARES INSIGHT.10.6K by Alan Beck, editor in chief For eight years, Gunter Ahrendt has documented the world's most powerful computing sites and made the information available to the public. HPCwire talks with Ahrendt about his list and some of the trends he has noted in HPC sites, hardware and applications -- more competitive Japanese vendors, the differences between benchmarks and how the list was started. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 10125 ) VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY INTEGRAL TO BMW R&D CENTER.............1.9K Automaker BMW is working in cooperation with the University of Erlangen and Sense8 Corporation to develop VR techniques for advanced visualization of vehicle crash-worthiness simulations. 10126 ) LARGEST-KNOWN PRIME DISCOVERED WITH CRAY T94......................4.6K Routine tests on a Cray T94 system have yielded the largest-known prime number -- which is also the largest-known Mersenne prime. The new prime has 378,632 digits, and, if printed in newspaper-sized type would fill 12 pages. COMMERCIAL NEWS 10127 ) NIST WILL CEASE CREATING NEW SQL TESTS BY 1997...................25.8K by Alan Beck, editor in chief The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will cease creating new standards for SQL (Standard Query Language), one of the most popular vehicles for extracting meaningful information from relational databases, as of Dec. 31. 10128 ) THINKING MACHINES BRINGS DATA MINING TO DEC ALPHA AND IBM SP......2.7K Thinking Machines Corp announced its Darwin suite of data mining software will be available for two major platforms: Digital Equipment Corporation's 64-bit AlphaServer family, running either Digital UNIX or Windows NT and the IBM RS/6000 Scalable POWERparallel Systems (SP), by fourth quarter 1996. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 10122 ) "Rather than thinking of a PAPERS cluster as a traditional NOW, it's better to conceive of it as a dedicated parallel supercomputer that just happens to be made out of commodity boxes with a custom connection." -- Hank Dietz, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Purdue University __________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS_______________________________ | 7171 ) HIGH-SPEED SWITCHING WHITE PAPER offered by Ancor Communications | | 7170 ) MAXIMUM STRATEGY Server Saves Ford $1,000,0000 | | 7141 ) FREE Trial Subscription to WEBster, The Cyberspace Surfer -- | | Your Guide to What's News on the Web | | 7142 ) Call for Participation SUPERCOMPUTING '96 Nov.17-22 Pittsburgh, Pa. | | 7122 ) WHAT DO USERS WANT FROM HPC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? | | A Special State-of-the-Industry Report | |____________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== 10129 ) Call for Participation in New Version of Top500 List............3.8K 10130 ) CI Report Casts Doubt on Gigabit Ethernet Domination of LANs....6.3K 10131 ) IBM Integrated Storage Solution Slated for Q4 Release...........1.5K 10132 ) MCNC Hosts IP Switching Interoperability Tests..................4.8K 10133 ) Unisys Awarded $100 Million NIH CIO-SP Contract.................1.4K 10134 ) Madge Outlines ATM Networking Strategy..........................2.5K 10135 ) Digital Unveils New 64-Bit Alpha Servers, Posts Benchmarks......2.6K 10136 ) Japan Wants Time to Consider US Supercomputer Case..............1.9K 10137 ) S3 Opens India Design Center For VLSI Products..................1.5K 10138 ) OpenConnect Adds Encryption to OCS II Server....................1.9K 10139 ) Defense Intelligence Community Extends BTG SASS Contract..........2K 10140 ) Zycad Wins $2.35M DARPA Contract for Configurable Platform........3K 10141 ) Diamond.Net Building Fiber Optic and ATM Satellite Network......1.4K 10142 ) DynCorp Unit Wins $3M DoD Procurement System Contract...........1.7K SHORT TAKES 10143) Product Watch: Digital Introduces Multiswitch Solutions HP Doubles Memory Depth of Logic Analyzers Olympus 2.6 GM Optical Drive for Sun Solaris.......14K 10144 ) Financial Update: IBM Earns All A's from Standard & Poor's DataMind Raises Additional $7.1M..............8.4K 10145 ) Corporate Liaisons: MTI Joins Fibre Channel Loop Community. Bay Networks to Buy LANcity.................8.3K 10146 ) People and Promotions: Richard Tapia Joins National Science Board Jim Clark Founds New Internet Company Hartmanis To Lead NSF CS Directorate.....7.1K JOB BANK ===================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc., San Diego Supercomputing Center, IBM Corp., Nichols Research, Raytheon E-Systems, Sun Microsystems.............................2.4K 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations..................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated 09.05.96)......... .....8.8K HPCwire INFORMATION ========================================================== 670 ) Masthead..........................................................2.2K 601 ) Subscriptions & Removals..........................................2.6K 602 ) Submitting Letters & Articles.....................................1.6K 950 ) Index of Back Issues...............................................11K Comments regarding editorial content may be sent to: editor@hpcwire.tgc.com ______________________H P C w i r e S P O N S O R S_______________________ | Full background information on all Sponsoring Companies | | | | 936) Sony 905) Maximum Strategy 937) Digital Equipment | | 934) HP/Convex Tech. Center930) HNSX Supercomputers 932) Portland Group | | 921) Cray Research Inc. 902) IBM Corp. 915) Genias Software | | 909) Fujitsu 904) Intel Corp. 935) Silicon Graphics | |____________________________________________________________________________| -------------------- * -------------------- To date HPCwire has delivered 1,488,819 articles to HPC professionals worldwide *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** 10087 ) IBM & LLNL REVEAL PHASES OF ASCI................................7.7K 10089 ) THREE KINDS OF COMMERCIAL BUYER FOR IBM'S.......................6.5K 10097 ) IBM Plans to Add 32-Way SMP and Other Options to SP.............2.7K 10092 ) NASA AWARDS $25.8 MILLION TO ADVANCE SUPERCOMPUTING APPS........8.0K 10147 ) TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S HPCwire.........1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~